1 The year assigned to this letter remains tentative. Clemens is known to have used this kind of monogram stationery, one of those he purchased on Bond Street in London (see 1 Jan 74 to OLC, n. 1), on relatively few occasions: in five letters written in December 1873 from England; in fourteen letters written between September 1875 and May 1876 from Hartford; and in one letter written in March 1878 from Hartford. Of that span of years, 1873–78, only 1873, when Clemens was in London, and 1878, when he was in Munich, can be ruled out. And although no letters on this stationery have yet been found for 1874, that year cannot be eliminated on that basis alone. The letter has therefore been assigned to 1874 as the earliest possible year. The invitation from Gratz (1839–1925), a lawyer, member of the Philadelphia board of education, and chairman of the committee on the Girls’ Normal School, does not survive. If sent in late 1874, it might have asked Clemens to participate in the elaborate “semi-annual commencement of the fifty-third term” of the school, held at the Philadelphia Academy of Music on 28 January 1875 (Philadelphia Inquirer: “Girls’ Normal School,” 29 Jan 75, 3; “Philadelphia and Suburbs,” 4 Dec 74 and 13 Jan 75, 2; “Simon Gratz Dies at 87,” New York Times, 22 Aug 1925, 11).